Via the excellent Lebanese-Syrian blog Across The Bay comes Syrian President Bashar Assad’s formal response to Speaker Pelosi’s visit as well as Condi Rice’s sit down with the Syrian Foreign Minister in Egypt last week:
The latest news came today, when dissident Kamal Labwani, who was arrested in 2005 for meeting with State Department and White House officials to call for democratic and human rights reforms in Syria, was sentenced to life in prison, commuted to 12 years with labor. (And the NYT never questioned the Syrians’ bull when they said they sentenced a suspected al-Qaeda member for 3 years!)
This is what you get when you engage Syria: intransigence in foreign policy (a euphemism for the regime’s policy of sponsoring terror and destabilizing its neighbors), and wanton brutality domestically, against brave civic and human rights activists.
I’ll end with the words of the Post’s editorial: “The danger of offering ‘friendship’ and ‘hope’ to a ruler such as Mr. Assad is that it will be interpreted as acquiescence by the United States to the policies of dictatorship.”
In addition to the verdict against Mr. Labwani, two other human rights activists in Syria have been punished for daring to speak against the murderous Assad regime. The WaPo editorial Anton references above from two weeks ago highlights the plight of Anwar al-Bunni, democracy advocate and someone mentioned specifically in Pelosi’s statement on her meeting with Assad:
In a statement, her delegation reported that it had talked to Mr. Assad about stopping the flow of foreign terrorists to Iraq and about obtaining the release of kidnapped Israeli soldiers. It also said it had “conveyed our strong interest in the cases of [Syrian] democracy activists,” such as imprisoned human rights lawyer Anwar al-Bunni.
Three weeks have passed, so it’s fair to ask: Has there been any positive change in Syrian behavior — any return gesture of goodwill, however slight?
Mr. al-Bunni might offer the best answer — if he could. On Tuesday, one of Mr. Assad’s judges sentenced him to five years in prison. His “crimes” were to speak out about the torture and persecution of regime opponents, to found the Syrian Human Rights Association and to sign the “Damascus Declaration,” a pro-democracy manifesto.
I’m sure Mr. al-Bunni is thanking the Speaker profusely for her “intervention.”
And that’s not all. One prominent opposition figure, a former Syrian MP turned human rights activist who spent 5 years in jail and has since fled the country, begged Pelosi not to visit Syria:
Another source explains that Syrian activists believe Pelosi’s trip gave the Asad regime much needed breathing room. “Whether there is a real connection or not, political dissidents note that Anwar al-Bunni was sentenced to five years in prison in the wake of Pelosi’s visit.”
Another opposition figure, Muhammad Ma’moun Homsi, a former Syrian MP who was imprisoned for five years beginning in 2001, and who has now fled Syria, revealed that he had sent a letter to Pelosi asking her not to come to Damascus. In an interview on an Arabic-language website, Homsi added that the idea of engaging such regimes is “a very dangerous proposition cause next will be a call to engage terrorist organizations.”
And now some regional observers believe that Ibrahim Suleiman is a signal to the Democrats that they have an eager partner in Damascus. Walid Choucair, a columnist for the pan-Arab daily Al Hayat, writes that Suleiman is part of a Syrian “wager on the changed position of a future administration (and) the Democrats coming to power in 2008.”
It’s hardly surprising that the Asad regime is trying to wait out a highly unfriendly White House and see what fate throws them next. But what has the Democrats so excited about a government that is helping to kill U.S. soldiers and Iraqi civilians, targeting American allies and interests in Israel, the PA, and Jordan, all while trying to reassert its presence in Lebanon?
Since that Weekly Standard article by Lee Smith came out on May 2, Anton reports:
[T]he regime seized Homsi’s assets, stripping his family of its home ownership, in order to pressure him and his family. That happened the same day Rice met with Syria’s FM at the Iraq conference in Egypt.
The level of cynicism it takes to engage Syria in any kind of “dialogue” while they round up and persecute those who expose themselves to extreme danger in order to affect democratic changes in their country is beyond me.
In a few weeks, after the UN invokes Chapter 7 to seat the International Tribunal that will try the murderers of the ex-Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri and other Syrian opponents in Lebanon, solid evidence will be presented of complicity in those murders by the highest levels - the absolute highest - of the Syrian government. And then where will the proponents of engaging the Syrians be? On the outs looking in as the world recoils in horror and Syria becomes a pariah nation with a real effort in the Security Council to impose draconian sanctions on her.
Anyone could have told Pelosi and Rice this if they didn’t know it. But of course, they both knew. And they were probably aware that any discussion with Assad about going easy on human rights and democracy advocates was also doomed to failure.
That foreknowledge exposes their rank cynicism for the despicable attribute it clearly is. There are other ways to stop foreign fighters from coming into Iraq via Syria. And if Assad doesn’t know what they are, he should be informed in no uncertain terms of the options open to the United States military to deal with the problem.
10:04 am
“he should be informed in no uncertain terms of the options open to the United States military to deal with the problem.”
Air strikes with conventionals and nukes is the
only military option, thanks to the brain-dead
intransigence of the Iraq war. We can’t even send the National Guard into a town in Kansas which was leveled by a natural event. The military is nearly broken, and the vandal is your Prez’.
10:11 am
Why invade? Not necessary to accomplish the goal of making Assad do what is necessary to keep foreign fighters from crossing into Iraq.
And the NG story is a lie - you’re about 2 days behind the debunking of that myth.
10:24 am
“The level of cynicism it takes to engage Syria in any kind of “dialogue†while they round up and persecute those who expose themselves to extreme danger in order to affect democratic changes in their country is beyond me.”
And yet we all deal quite happily with the thugs in charge in Saudi.
I reference the last post, and the words of Tony Blair;
“Ranged against us are the people who hate us; but beyond them are many more who don’t hate us but question our motives, our good faith, our even-handedness, who could support our values but believe we support them selectively.”
This is a classic example of why people think that we support these values selectively. To most of the world it looks like we use human rights as a cover for control of the world. The Syrians are evil incarnate, the Saudis are our friends. The actual quality of regime in each is much of a muchness, our attitudes towards them are almost diametrically opposed.
(Note, for those who need it spelled out, no I am not saying that Assad is some sort of saint or that the points raised in the post are incorrect)
10:44 am
For the Plausible Denialists, a ‘lie’ is in the eye of the beholder, and a victim of semantics.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070507/ts_nm/tornado_kansas_dc_15
Are you referring, as your source, that the 300 NG troops they are reporting sent(5/9/07) is making Mondays news, a ‘lie’? Knee jerk reactions to public relations disasters are hardly an indication all is well with the military personnel, or their equipment.
A
“Pentagon spokesman in Washington said other states were supposed to help provide resources in an emergency. White House spokesman Tony Snow said the administration was doing what it could and equipment would arrive if it was needed.
Kansas Emergency Management spokeswoman Sharon Watson said because of the shortage of National Guard equipment, the state was rushing to hire contractors to help clear debris.
Nearly 70 Kansas National Guard troops were arriving in Greensburg on Monday to supplement about 40 troops already on the ground, and some guard Humvees were available to start clearing wreckage, Watson said.
Sebelius said the failure by Washington to replace or return state National Guard equipment deployed to Iraq was “not a very satisfying effort.”
The governor said Kansas lacks about half the large equipment it could use for recovery efforts and debris removal, including dump trucks and front loaders. More than 20 percent of its Humvees and 15 of 19 helicopters were sent to Iraq, said officials with the Kansas National Guard.”
11:12 am
So, in short you don’t care about the soldiers and civilians dying in Iraq (the flow of foreign fighters from Syria is reported to be halved after Pelosi’s visit), because of some _post hoc ergo propter hoc_ fantasies about dissidents that were going to jail anyway? And the fact that warming up of relationships lead to _better_ chances for dissidents, not worse, is also beyond you?
And the fact that some Syrian dissidents think that Bush is the worst thing that happened to Syria is unimportant, given the fact that there are other dissidents that just hate Pelosi.
This is just self-fulfilling prophecy logic: “let’s turn Syria into North Korea, and then they will kill their opposition in summary executions, and then we will further isolate them, and then it will be _worse_ than North Korea, and then we will bomb them a little, and then they will send half of their population into GULAGs and then let’s make it a little bit worse…”
BTW, speaking about foreign fighters, have you at least heard about Assad father’s massacres of Muslim Brothers? Do you at least acknowledge the fact that Islamists that enter Iraq from Syria are not government’s friends, but their enemies?
11:26 am
Per Q & O:
“Several readers this morning have already commented to me that Jim Quinn, political talk show host based here in Pittsburgh from 104.7 WPGB, has cited a source with authority on the subject that Howard Dean personally called the Governor to set the wheels in motion for her to claim that efforts were being hampered by lack of equipment due to the war in Iraq.
The story is plausible because both Senator Sam Brownback and the White House have issued conflicting stories where, after contacting officials in the state, they were told there were plenty of resources for the recovery effort.
The source claims that Sebeliuss called Senator Brownback to express her regret over the remarks and reassure him that they were not her own feelings but that rather those of the Democratic leadership.”
Brownback issued a statement where he quotes the Commander of the Kansas Guard saying that they had everything they needed and that the governor’s claims were false.
12:03 pm
So give us an answer oh wise one. What should we do insted of enguage them in talk and diplomacy. We’ve already seen that invading a country which has not attacked us does noting more than make our position in the world jsut that much more untenable. So what, he’s stil a tyrant. As has been mentioned there are many tyrants in the world. Many of them are our friends. Saddam was our friend until he stopped doing what we told him to.
12:17 pm
BTW, Rick…the quote from the Kansas NG Commander? Of course he said that. He has to. You know as well as I that so long as he is a member of the U.S. Military, particularly as a high ranking officer, he HAS TO support the President. He is forbidden by law to speak out against him or his policies. Claiming that the Iraq Invasion/Occupation has drained state level resources to the point where public safety is being compromised would most cerainly be viewed as a violation, most likely a career ending one at that.
12:30 pm
A real feather in the hat of liberal foreign policy makers like General Pelosi. Amazing how she was able to speak for the Bush administration as well as the Olmert administration in Israel despite PM Olmert’s subsequent denial that Israel has not changed its stance toward Syria.
And as to the mendacious liberal posturing about the state of the National Guard in Kansas, Powerlineblog.com uncovered this incovenient truth about the vile political opportunism of liberal Democrats and their left-wing lap dogs in the media who continue foisting this lie upon the American people to this very hour:
Kathleen Sebelius, the Democratic Governor of Kansas, claimed that Kansas is missing 60 percent of its National Guard equipment because of the war, and has thus been hampered in dealing with the damage caused by the tornado. Barack Obama made the same claim, while somehow managing to state that the death toll was 10,000, not 12. And of course lefty bloggers tried to hammer the point home.
In fact, it’s not true that Kansas was missing 60 percent of its National Guard equipment, or that the National Guard was ill-prepared to deal with the aftermath of the tornado. The Democrats’ claim is pure invention. According to Randal Noller, public affairs officer for the National Guard Bureau, the Kansas National Guard has 88 percent of its forces available, and 60 percent of its Army Guard dual-use equipment on hand, along with more than 85 percent of its Air Guard equipment. If the Kansas National Guard were short-handed in any way, it could have asked for assistance from other states under a national sharing agreement. It did not do so.
12:48 pm
Rick, you have to admit the leftist will always resort to conspiracy theories and people being in CYA mode in the Bush Administration in order to swallow the pathetic lies of the left. Tim of Releigh is a perfect example of this reflexive moonbattery: BTW, Rick…the quote from the Kansas NG Commander? Of course he said that. He has to. You know as well as I that so long as he is a member of the U.S. Military, particularly as a high ranking officer, he HAS TO support the President.
Forget Occam’s razor, Democrats never lie for political reasons, and anything the Administration, Department of Defense and actual documents themselves must always be questioned.
Here’s the DoD analysis of the readiness of the Kansas National Guard … but of course lefty bloggers and the liberal media are ALWAYS in lieu of some warmongering official spokesperson of the eeeeevil military industrial complex that are nothing more than lying liars who lie. Oh, and you can discount any documentation that the government might subsequently produce because Bush and Rove are forcing their mind-numbed pawns in the DoD to lie and use forged documents to further victimize the Kansas governor who is only speaking truth to power. And did I mention the governor was female? There you have it, it proves the left’s case, Bush hates women doesn’t he?
5:04 pm
.” but of course lefty bloggers and the liberal media are ALWAYS in lieu of some warmongering official spokesperson of the eeeeevil military industrial complex that are nothing more than lying liars who lie.”
Perhaps you would condescend to cite the examples wherein Military Brass have been truthful. I wait with bated breath.
8:31 pm
Cleo, you just got your ass handed to you. Now go away like a good whipped dog.
Rice has been smart. I don’t hold with the criticism of her regarding Syria. Rice didn’t even allow a photograph to be taken of her with the Syrian foreign minister, because, quite unlike the clueless Pelosi, she understood how the Boy President would use the photo in the Arab press.
Pelosi has been a study in galactic stupidity. Now the rumor is she is going to Tehran.
Jesus wept.
9:54 pm
“The level of cynicism it takes to engage Syria in any kind of “dialogue†while they round up and persecute those who expose themselves to extreme danger in order to affect democratic changes in their country is beyond me.â€
Really? Pelosi must have had the same “cynicism†of Eisenhower when he met Khrushchev, or Ford meeting Brezhnev, how about Nixon meeting Mao, and of course the sainted Reagan meeting Gorbachev. I did not agree with Pelosi [Rice as a representative of the President is different] going to the middle east but idea that you can’t talk to very bad people is nonsense. In the real world you have to deal with them, at one time or another. Surely understanding that is not “beyond†you.
4:50 am
Cleo, let’s make this easier. Why don’t you give us examples of where the military brass has been wrong (and there have been cases of them being wrong or even deceptive as with any large organization, even the Democrat Party) and then we’ll have to assume the other ten million times the military brass has been honest and forthright.
Do you have proof that the DoD is wrong about the strength levels of the Kansas National Guard … other than the lies of the Kansas governor, the vile Democratic opportunists, and partisan lefty bloggers? That’s the real issue here.
5:05 am
God, Rick, your site has been taken over by the left.
How very unfortunate.
pelosi should keep her frozen face in place here in America, she is not the Secretay of State but acts as though she is the President. Her last face lift pulled a little too tight and messed up her common sense.
Bottom line, you really can’t talk to these people, they only want death to Isreal and America and putting on a designer scarf and having a little sit down ain’t cutting it.
10:51 am
Funny that you talk about conspiracy theories, when it’s Rick pushing baseless conspiracy theories about Howard Dean personally calling governor to politicize this.
9:02 pm
Hankmeister, are you related to NoDonkey on Captains Quarters blog? I wondered because each time one of you open his mouth hatred flows like a volcano. Kool-aid drinkers like you think all democrats are commies and socialists, and are in cahoots with Al Queda.Meister boy, get this straight, you have entered the fringe subspecies. Your so full of hate no good arguments have a chance to get out. Your why Bush is at 35% approval.You are further to the right than Khengis Khan. People like you listen to Rush and Hannitty and then like a parrot,repeat what they said.Nancy Pelosi SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE….say it with me hankmeister, let it roll off your tongue,sounds good, doesn’t it.
12:08 am
[...] Rick Moran gives us a run down on the early returns of Nancy Pelosi and Condi Rices overtures. First he gives us the latest from Lebanese-Syrian blogger Across the Bay: The latest news came today, when dissident Kamal Labwani, who was arrested in 2005 for meeting with State Department and White House officials to call for democratic and human rights reforms in Syria, was sentenced to life in prison, commuted to 12 years with labor. (And the NYT never questioned the Syrians’ bull when they said they sentenced a suspected al-Qaeda member for 3 years!) [...]